Writing The Immigrant Journey Enrique (whose last name is never disclosed to protect his privacy) was only five years old when his mother left him behind in Honduras to begin a new life in the United States. Lourdes believed the separation from her son would last no longer than a year while she earned enough support [...]
The Challenges Of Writing War Narratives During the past several years I have been searching for a Tim O’Brien of the Iraq-Afghanistan Wars. I’ve read much of the literature from these wars in search of a writer with the depth of introspection and beauty of language that O’Brien brought to the literature of the Vietnam [...]
The Art Of The Memoir And Speaking The Truth Lauren Slater writes that memoirs offer us the opportunity to reinvent the lives we have already invented as we live minute by minute, day by day. “Memoir is the only second chance you ever get at life,” she writes. “It is a willful turning back of the [...]
The Art Of Slowing Down In our hurried and often harried world, thank goodness there are writers reminding us that faster is not always better. In this column I discuss books by two authors—Carl Honore’s In Praise of Slow (HarperCollins, 2004) and Pico Iyer’s The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere (TED Books, 2014)—who write [...]
Writing From Personal Experience The most relevant and meaningful writing is drawn from personal experience. If you have lived that experience, you are an immediate expert, not an outsider looking in. In this column I highlight the works of three writers who worked minimum wage jobs—two in simulated situations and one out of necessity—whose experiences [...]
What Candy Can Teach Us About Self Control During the fall of 2014 I authored a fifteen-part blog entitled Discovering the Greatness in Smallness: 15 Qualities of Great Short Story Writers for DigiWriting. I am pleased to continue guest posts for DigiWriting by writing a monthly column entitled Literary Insights in which I will share insights about [...]
Understand Your Experiences: Part 13 This is the thirteenth blog in the weekly 15-part Discovering the Greatness in Smallness: 15 Qualities of Great Short Story Writers series by Susanne Carter. Quality 13: Great short story writers provide great insights. “The power of fiction is that it gives us, as readers, the opportunity to move inside another human being, to look [...]
Don’t Try to Solve Problems or Find Solutions: Part 12 This is the twelfth blog in the weekly 15-part Discovering the Greatness in Smallness: 15 Qualities of Great Short Story Writers series by Susanne Carter. Quality 12: Great short story writers don’t try to solve problems or find solutions. “A writer doesn't solve problems. He allows them to emerge.” [...]
Know Your Last Sentence: Part 11 This is the eleventh blog in the weekly 15-part Discovering the Greatness in Smallness: 15 Qualities of Great Short Story Writers series by Susanne Carter. Quality 11: Great short story writers write great endings. “It is my feeling that a story is not finished until it is read, and that the reader finishes it [...]
Write Great Beginnings: Part 10 This is the tenth blog in the weekly 15-part Discovering the Greatness in Smallness: 15 Qualities of Great Short Story Writers series by Susanne Carter. Quality 9: Great short story writers write great beginnings. “The first sentence of a book is a handshake, perhaps an embrace. Style and personality are irrelevant. They can be formal [...]
Who Drives Your Story: Part 9 This is the ninth blog in the weekly 15-part Discovering the Greatness in Smallness: 15 Qualities of Great Short Story Writers series by Susanne Carter. Quality 9: Great short story writers develop strong characters. “It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I [...]
Write From Where You Are: Part 8 This is the eighth blog in the weekly 15-part Discovering the Greatness in Smallness: 15 Qualities of Great Short Story Writers series by Susanne Carter. Quality 8: Great short story writers recognize the importance of place. “Every story would be another story, and unrecognized . . . if it took [...]
